Living life with a ‘White Line Fever’

Brianna Wedding// Project Coordinator

24 Aug 2016

White line fever; a term commonly used amongst athletes. It’s the passion, the preparation, the adrenaline of a particular moment and how it can consume you. It’s that moment when an athlete hits the court and their mind is subconsciously present in performing to the best of their ability. It’s being present in that very moment, focused with a tunnel vision for the task at hand.

From a young age I have struggled with the ability to accept and respect my white line fever in a sporting match. Something overcomes me on court, the adrenaline, the passion and the hunger to do well for my team and for that very moment I am purely focused on the task at hand. My passion and excitement for a game can too often be associated with aggression, and an unnecessary amount of energy and effort. Whilst these negative perceptions of white line fever are considered the norm, there is another more positive side.

White line fever allows you to be captured and engulfed by a moment. It allows your passion, care, and excitement for a particular area in your life to consume your attention and focus. To positively display white line fever demonstrates your ability to be focused on a situation without distractions or external areas of focus. When we are captured by our white line fever we are producing a high intensity effort, with consistent and focused attention on the task at hand.

White line fever gives an unspoken ability for someone to ‘switch off’ from this high intensity moment. After all, we wouldn’t want fevers to last forever would we? The ability to use this white line fever against competitors in comparison to trying ’to do everything all the time’ means that we are able to switch off from our pressures, expectations and demands in order to wind down, reflect and replenish our energy.

As we personally grow, our careers and families change, we are constantly increasing the areas of our life that our attention is drawn to. It gets to a point where we entail so many commitments that the lines become blurry as to where our attention lies during a certain moment. We find ourselves struggling to be fully present at any given time. We have hundreds of emails in our inbox, we’re late to a meeting, we skipped our workout this morning, and the list can go on. In any moment, we become disrupted in so many other areas of our life that we in fact are only ever physically present in that moment. We find ourselves physically moving from events to meetings and coming home to our families whilst we are mentally, emotionally and personally not there. This is not sustainable in the long term.

In any industry, there is no asset that a client appreciates more than our time and presence. Clients appreciate our ability to be present, passionate, and focused in their moment. The same can be said of our family, friends and colleagues. It shows that you are interested and care for the people involved in that particular moment. Through taking a white line fever approach to life you will be able to produce high intensity, passionate and effective interactions, but balance this with the ability to switch off and reflect.

Understand and approach life with the positive element of white line fever. Resist the urge to drag frustrations, worries and stress across to another moment as you can’t underestimate the ability for someone to identify your lack of presence in their time with you. Drive your attention through passion, care and excitement rather than pressure, aggression and stress. Become engulfed with each area of your life and live in the present, for it only takes a second for that moment to become the past.

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About the Author

Brianna Wedding

"I love teamwork, as simple as it sounds! Collectively and collaboratively working together to solve problems or improve the environment in which we operate excites me. Using innovation, collaboration and a strong alignment to the ‘why’ I love embedding myself into teams; swiftly growing and moving together in reach of the same goal. I am passionate and committed to creating ‘buy in’ through all levels of an organisation, bid or project team and holding people accountable to their outcomes.”